Health status and health promoting behaviors among community health nurses in Jakarta, Indonesia

Abstract

This study assessed factors related to health status among community health nurses in Jakarta, Indonesia. It was a descriptive cross-sectional study with a sample size of 219 community health nurses who selected by multi-stage random sampling from 1263 community health nurses from 5 cities in Jakarta Province. SF-36 questionnaire was used to evaluate health status and health promoting lifestyle profile (HPLP II) for determine health promoting behaviors among community health nurses in Jakarta Province. The data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, Chi-square test, and multiple logistic regressions.

Most of the respondents were females (75.8%), and the mean age was 38.5 years (SD=10.5). The study showed that 41.1% reported they had poor health status. The overall health-promoting behavior was good (52.5%), the highest was spiritual growth (85.8%) while the lowest was physical activity (35.2%). Chi-square tests found that there was a significant relationship between health status and age, household income, body mass index (BMI), number of children, working duration, working position, overall health promoting behavior, physical activity, spiritual growth, interpersonal relations, and stress management behavior. Multiple logistic regression showed that BMI (Adj OR=2.17, 95% CI=1.14-4.10) and spiritual growth (Adj OR=4.13, 95% CI=1.47-11.59) were predictors of health status among community health nurses.

This study showed that almost half of community health nurses in Jakarta did not practice healthy life behaviors in their lives, and 4 by 10 nurses were reporting poor health status. Health-promoting behaviors and health status had been proven to have a positive relationship, especially on BMI score and spiritual status. Regulations and health promotion programs that are able to encourage healthy nurses are required.